Pistol (Doom 3)

The pistol is the most basic firearm in Doom 3 and the first weapon the player acquires aside from his or her own fists. Compared to other weapons, the pistol is weak, but it is also highly accurate and has a generous supply of ammunition available. This makes it useful throughout the game for use on weak enemies. "All UAC Security and Military personnel are supplied with this basic projectile side arm."

- PDA description

Tactical analysis
"Standard marine issue semi-automatic pistol. It’s highly accurate and provides solid stopping power without expending too much ammo."

- Doom 3 instruction manual

This weapon is considerably more powerful than the classic pistol, but often seems weaker as several of the weaker monsters have been "beefed up" compared to their classic counterparts. It is accurate at any range, but it has less overall damage output than any of the other guns available to the player. Nonetheless, it is effective against many of the lesser enemies in the game, especially if the player can achieve head shots on their target. Its ammunition is quite plentiful in the early parts of the single-player campaigns, so it can be used to deal with many of the weaker enemies without expending ammunition for the more powerful weaponry.

The pistol is adequate against zombies, so long as there are not too many of them at once - if the player finds themself facing large numbers, a weapon such as the shotgun would be a better choice. It is a worthy weapon against trites, ticks, lost souls and Forgotten Ones if the user's aim is reliable, being able to kill any of these in two shots. A lone imp, wraith, maggot, cherub, or vulgar can be dealt with using the pistol, although a more powerful weapon would be recommended if facing more than one at a time.

The pistol is also a good choice for detonating explosive barrels, either to remove them from the way or to harm enemies nearby; most barrels can be detonated by two pistol shots, although some will detonate after only a single hit. It can also be used to fire a single shot at corpses on the ground just to check that they are not in fact a dormant zombie, although this can also be achieved by simply shining the flashlight at them.

While the pistol, machine gun and chaingun all technically fire bullets, they do not share the same ammo pool as in earlier and later Doom games.

Trivia

 * The appearance of the pistol is influenced by the pistol that 's character carries in the  film.